Air France announced Saturday that it has canceled two Paris-Washington flights and two return flights on Sunday and Monday due to security concerns.

"We confirm that for reasons of safety we have canceled flight number 026 to Washington on February 1 and the same flight on February 2," an Air France spokeswoman said.

Meanwhile, Air France's branch in the United States announced that it has also scrapped two Washington-Paris flights on Sunday and Monday.

"We have been for several months in an extremely tense international environment... Air France has thus decided to take necessary measures and suspend the flights, I think its a wise decision," French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villep in told France's TF1 TV station.

A US official said on Saturday Washington had intelligence that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network might target five or six US-bound flights from Europe to carry out possible Sept. 11-style attacks on US interests.

On Saturday, British Airways canceled flight BA223 to Washington on Sunday and Monday, and the return BA222 flights to London on the same days.

(Xinhua News Agency February 2, 2004)